Google seems to have changed some of their search results, and — brutal honesty time here, folks — we discovered it via a little ego surfing. But it was worthwhile because we turned up this photo set by one Atomic99 which contains tons of photos from San Diegos going back to 1989, mostly costumes but a few personalities, like Stan Lee (since we’ve been on a Stan kick) from 1989.

We also found this one, from the 1993 Eisner Awards, and, shamefully, we actually had no prior memory of presenting the great Archie Goodwin with an Eisner Award while Will Eisner looked on. We did recall that once, back in the day, we were an Eisner presenter, but had no memory of where, when or who. To discover, via this photo, that it was to Archie, perhaps the greatest comic book editor of the modern era, and one of our own role models, is something to be quite thankful for. And it’s sad that we’re the only person living from that photo…but something else to be thankful for that we’re still here, and have such wonderful friends and family and work in an industry where people like Archie and Will are, even if rare, still accessible and so generous with their advice and wisdom.

While I never had the opportunity to meet Mr. Goodwin, I have spoken with many editors who were gracious to share their experience with me.
Fortunately, Ms. MacDonald was the first among equals, and I am thankful for that.
I hope that San Diego and other cons will offer panels where editors can share their experience with others.

As much as I admire and miss Archie Goodwin (though I never had the pleasure to meet or know him), I measure and value his impact by the vast number of folks who are better storytellers for having known and worked with him.

The last time I remember seeing Archie alive was when Nick Bertozzi took me over to his office at DC in ’96 or so and we chatted a bit about the time when I was a volunteer over at San Diego and I had to help out at one of these DC vs. Marvel Trivia bashes and for some reason Archie got smacked in the face with a cream pie for not getting the answer right. I had to provide him with a few wet towels to wipe that shaving cream junk off his face.

He got a good laugh out of that. I miss him. He was the most easiest go to guy in the biz.

Wow! Thanks, Heidi. Ian of the Comic Timing Podcast over at the Comic Geek Speak forums mentioned you were talking about me so I had to come over and see.

I’ve been taking photos of the San Diego Con since 1989; two years as an official con photographer, which was when this Eisner Awards photo was taken. Today, Tom DeLeon and his team of photographers have so many more panels to cover. All of it goes into the San Diego Comic-Con archives and perhaps one day they will let the public have access to viewing it through a website. Until then, people can only get a glance of the SDCC and comic book’s long history by whatever fans manage to post like Alan Light’s great 1970s and 1980s SDCC photos on his FLICKR site.